Battle of Green Hill
Battle of Green Hill (AKA: Sudbury Fight) was a battle of King Philip's War fought on 18 Apr 1676 near Sudbury, Massachusetts, where a band of indians victoriously ambushed an English militia company from Middlesex County MA led by Capt Samuel Wadsworth, and Capt Brocklebank and some 50 militia, most of whom who died there. Overview King Philip's War King Philip's War (1675-1678) was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day New England and English colonists and their Native American allies. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay in April 1678. Sudbury Detachment Capt. Samuel Wadsworth, with fifty men, was sent from Boston to the relief of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Captain Wadsworth and his men passed through Sudbury on their way to Marlborough, and all appeared quiet there, but when he reached the garrison, he heard that Sudbury was being attacked. Although he and his company had marched all day and all night, he hastened to the defense of the settlers, taking with him such soldiers as were able to travel, and exchanging others for men at the garrison--about fifty men in all; including the militia of Rowley MA under Captain Brocklebank. While reconnoitering on Green Hill and Discovering a few Indians, and pursuing them about a mile into the woods, the English found themselves suddenly surrounded by some five hundred of the savages, who with hideous yelling opened a destructive fire. The English were attacked from ambush, and Captain Wadsworth and Captain Brocklebank, with about 28 men were slain, twenty of the party escaping with their lives. This encounter was attended by dire atrocities. The largest battle of the "Sudbury Fight" took place when hundreds of Native American warriors ambushed a combined force of roughly fifty English Colonial soldiers from the Boston area under the command of Captain Samuel Wadsworth plus roughly twenty soldiers from the Marlborough garrison under the command of Captain Samuel Brocklebank in the valley between two hills now called Green Hill and Goodman's Hill. It is surprising that the combined force of Colonial soldiers would be easily ambushed, since both Captains were highly experienced and used to the ambush tactics of their enemy. The Colonial soldiers fought their way to a more defensible position at the top of Green Hill, but they remained completely surrounded by large numbers of Native American warriors. The Native American commanders dislodged the Colonial soldiers from their defensive position at the top of Green Hill by setting fire to a line of dry brush and trees upwind of them on the side of the hill. The wind-driven flames and smoke from this forest fire forced the Colonial soldiers into a hasty and uncoordinated retreat down the hill toward a mill building in what is now the Mill Village shopping center south-west of the top of Green Hill. Captains Wadsworth and Brocklebank and most of their soldiers who had survived the earlier phase of the battle were killed during this hasty retreat; some of their bodies were later recovered on the western side of Green Hill. A few soldiers were captured, tortured, and then killed by Native American warriors. A few Colonial soldiers made it to the mill building and were rescued that night by other Colonial soldiers most of whom were with the Watertown Company. It is surprising that the Native American forces did not attack the mill building and kill the Colonial soldiers huddled there. The mill building is thought to have had strong walls and probably provided some natural protection, but the Native American forces had complete control of the battlefield and could have easily burned the mill building and forced out and killed the Colonial soldiers who took shelter there. Since the hostile Native American forces had burned or destroyed all other undefended structures in Sudbury west of the river, it is also surprising that they had not bothered to burn down the mill building earlier in the day. Green Hill was later given its present name on account of the dense forest of evergreen trees on it, and a similar forest of trees plus their accompanying undergrowth would have provided ample fuel for a major forest fire in 1676. Contemporary Accounts A number of men of that time wrote accounts of the Battle of Green Hill, or made notes regarding it. One of these was General Daniel Gookin, the son of the Daniel Gookin who was the companion of William Wadsworth in Virginia in 1621, both men having returned to England before settling in Massachusetts. General Gookin was at this time the commanding officer of the Middlesex forces and the Superintendant of the "Praying (Christian) Indians," in the Colony. The date of the battle was estimated as taking place on one of the days between the 18th and the 21st, and eventually the 18th was decided upon. Years later, the finding of The Old Petition fixed the date as April 21, 1676. Captain Wadsworth was spoken of by the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, of Ipswich, as "that resolute, stout-hearted soldier." His widow survived him many years, retaining the homestead and caring for the welfare and education of her children." Participants Rowley Militia In the autumn of 1675, twelve men from Rowley, Massachusetts were impressed into the service to meet the exigencies of King Philip's War, then raging. These men and others, under Capt. Samuel Brocklebank (1628-1676), were led in January, 1676, to Narragansett, Massachusetts, and thence in March to Marlborough, where, in an assault upon the Indians, one of the company had his hand badly shattered by the breaking of his gun. Samuel served in King Philip’s War, a Captain of Militia from Rowley. They were the fort garrison at Marlborough, Massachusetts about February and March 1676, about 25 miles west of Boston and at that time the frontier of the colony. The Wampanoag (actually it was a federation and may have been Wampanoag, Narraganset, Pequot and/or Mohegan) attacked Marlborough on 26 March 1676 and burned a large part of the town, the garrison being too small to go out and attack them. Most of the people abandoned the town and moved to Boston until the end of the war, leaving only the fort garrison. The town was attacked again on 18 April, the few remaining houses being burnt. The Wampanoag were not strong enough to attack the fort, and the garrison was too weak to go out and attack the Wampanoag. After a day or two the Wampanoag moved east toward Sudbury. Captain Samuel Wadsworth at this point was sent out from Boston with another 50 men. Captain Brocklebank now brought the Marlborough garrison to Sudbury, where he joined up with Wadsworth. Brocklebank and Wadsworth fell into an ambush on 21 April and were killed along with most of their men. A monument marks the spot. Samuel is buried in Rowley. # Capt. Samuel Brocklebank - Commander - killed in action. # John Hopkinson, # John Stickney (1640-1709) - survived and married Capt Brocklebank's daughter Mary. # Joseph Jewett # Thomas Palmer # John Jackson # Stephen Mighill # John Leighton # Caleb Jackson # William Brown # Samuel Tiller # Joseph Bixby # Simon Gowin. Battle Memorial Captain Wadsworth, with Captain Borcklebank and their men were laid to rest in a common grave on the westerly side of Green Hill, where they met their death. The place was marked by a pile of loose field stones, about 12 feet wide at their base and 3 or 4 feet high. In 1730, a slab of plain slate was erected by Captain Wadsworth's son, Dr. Benjamin Wadsworth, then president of Harvard College. In 1852, the state of Massachusetts and the town of Sudbury moved the remains to a higher portion of the cemetery and erected an obelisk, incorporating the original slab. This monument stands at the entrance of Mt. Wadsworth Cemetery, sudbury. "Capt. Samuel Wadsworth of Milton, his Lieut. Sharp of Brooklin, Capt. Brocklebank of Rowley, with about Twenty-six other Soldiers Fighting for the Defence of their country, were slain, By ye Indian enemy April 18th 1676, & lye Buried in this place." (The date should have been April 21st instead of April 18th.) References * Source: Samuel Wadsworth, in Savage, James. "A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register." (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862), 4:380. * Rootsweb: Rowley History * Lt John Stickney - GENI * Capt Samuel Brocklebank - GENI * Battle of Green Hill - Sudbury01776.org Category: King Philip's War Category: Battles of King Philip's War Category: Conflicts in 1676 Category: Military history of the Thirteen Colonies Category: Native American history of Massachusetts Category: History of Sudbury, Massachusetts CategorY: History of Marlborough, Massachusetts Category: History of Rowley, Massachusetts